Entering Baseline Positions

 
At this point you should see the following message in the top left hand corner:
 
 
You will now need to determine the details of your baseline positions, then enter that data into TradeLog.
 
Determining baseline positions:
 
  1. You need to retrieve your December Statement from the previous tax year, for this brokerage account.
    (ex.: If creating a 2010 data file, you need your December 2009 Statement)
     
  2. From this statement look at the section reporting 'Holdings as of December 31.' Here your broker reports what was open at year end which carries forward to the next year. These need to be entered as baseline positions.
     
  3. Next find the section 'Trades Pending Settlement.' TradeLog records transactions based on trade date as required by the IRS. If there are trades in the prior tax year that are pending settlement, you must account for these in your baseline positions.
     
    Look to our tax topic: Baseline Positions under the section, "Unsettled trades affect your open positions" for more information.
     
  4. Now that you have identified your baseline positions, you will need the original purchase date and price paid in order to enter them into TradeLog.
     
  5. Notice that the price and date that is provided on the December statement is typically the fair market value of these shares as of December 31. The IRS requires that the true cost basis data be recorded. Therefore, you need to back track through your monthly statements to find when you purchased the shares and how much you paid for them.
     
  6. Once you have determined your baseline positions you can proceed with entering the positions into TradeLog.
     
    Note: If you have wash sales that were deferred in the previous tax year you will want to account for these with your baseline positions as well. See our topic on, Manually Entering a Wash Sale Deferral for more information.
 
Entering Baseline Positions into TradeLog:
 
  • We recommend reviewing the online tutorial lesson: Manually Entering Trades for a video discussion of this before continuing.
 
  1. Notice Tradelog has created a blank record for manual entry. This is where you enter the baseline information that you have looked up in your statement.
     
     
  2. Enter a Date
    Two digit month and day, and a four digit year (ex. 12/28/2009).
    Separators must be forward slashes ("/"). Alpha-numeric date formats are not acceptable (ex. March 11, 2009).
     
  3. Enter O
    O/C stands for Open/Close. Since you are putting in open positions, you will use only O.
     
  4. Enter L or S
    L/S stands for Long/Short. Here you will specify whether you bought to open or sold to open. If you bought to open shares/contracts then you will use L for Long. If you shorted shares/contracts, sold to open, then you will use S for Short
     
  5. Enter the Ticker symbol
    This is the NYSE symbol of the company being traded. Make sure when entering multiple records for the same security that the ticker symbols are identical. TradeLog cannot match two records with different tickers - even if they vary due to one special character (ex. %, &, -, /) or a space.
     
        Mutual Funds - are entered the same as stocks (ex. AAPL)
        Options - need to be in the following format: Ticker symbol, expiration day, expiration month, expiration year, strike price, & whether it is a CALL or PUT.
        (ex.: "AAPL 22JAN11 280 CALL")
        Futures - can be entered using future symbols (ex.: "ESM6" or "ESM06") or TradeLog standardized option symbol format (ex.: "ES DEC06")
        Futures Options - can only be entered using TradeLog standardized futures option symbol format (ex.: "ES DEC06 1030 CALL")
     
  6. Enter the amount of shares or contracts
    This is how many shares or contracts were open that carried through to the next year.
     
  7. Enter the price per share or contract
    The price per share/contract when they were originally purchased.
     
  8. Enter the type of security
    Here you need to specify what type of security you are entering.
       
        If entering a stock, bond, or mutual fund position select STK-1
        If entering an option position select OPT-100
        If entering a single stock future select SSF-100
        If entering a futures position or broad-based index option select FUT-. You need to enter the multiplier.
        If entering a currency select CUR-. You need to enter the multiplier.
     
  9. Enter the commission
    This is the commission paid on the shares or contracts when they were originally purchased.
     
  10. Leave the amount column blank
    TradeLog will automatically calculate this column.
    Amount = Shares x Price +/- Commissions & Fees
     
  11. Leave the profit and loss column blank
     
    Below are a few examples of properly entered Baseline Positions:
     
     
  12. After you enter one complete record hit ENTER, ENTER on your keyboard (enter key twice). TradeLog will prompt you to save the entry.
     
    Click YES
     
     
  13. You will be prompted to Enter another open position? You want to hit YES and continue entering open positions until you have accounted for all of them - repeating steps B through L above.
     
     
  14. Once finished click NO when prompted to Enter another open position?
     
    Now click OK
     
You are now ready for step 3: Import Trade History